WINK News Investigates: What happened to Kyle Byrtus?

LEE COUNTY, Fla.- A boy with talent and smarts takes a wrong turn. The end result is every parent’s worst nightmare.

It’s been nearly two years since Kyle Byrtus’ body was discovered by a Lehigh Acres Road and there are still no answers.

For the first time in years, Lynne Kreger returned to Fort Myers High School where her little boy excelled.

“I even choked up a little just pulling in the driveway.”

She remembers her son as a bookworm. After he graduated high school, he received thousands of dollars worth of scholarships.

“Straight A’s all the time and he graduated with honors.”

More than that, she remembers his competitive spirit. He was captain of the cross country team.

“He just started running one time and he just said he really enjoyed it because it cleared his head.”

He won races across the state, placing first time and time again.

But it’s after high school where all the trouble started.

“For some reason, we don’t know exactly why, but he turned to drugs.”

Byrtus attended Florida Atlantic University in Boca Raton. That’s where his addiction to Oxcycodone quickly took over his life, forcing him to move back home.

“Play into my head all the time, how could this happen. I just, I don’t know.”

Byrtus started staying with friends in Pine Manor and that’s when he started to get in trouble with the law.

At the age of 25, he was arrested in June 2013 and called his mom for help.

“My last conversation basically telling him, no I couldn’t help him, because I wasn’t going to pay to get him out unless he went to the facility.”

Byrtus refused rehab and the two never spoke again.

Three months later on August 15, 2013, Kreger and her husband were visiting Mississippi when the phone rang. The call was from a Lee County deputy.

“I kept asking them, could you please tell me is my son alive.”

Byrtus’ body was found in Lehigh Acres, deputies say he was murdered. Who killed him, is still a mystery.

“We believe that there are people out there who know what happened to Kyle,” said Captain William Murphy.

He says the case is dangerously approaching a stage where the investigation could turn cold.

“Until we actually find out who did this, I won’t have any closure,” said Kreger.

An increased reward and a brand new billboard hanging over Pine Manor hope to catch the right person’s attention.

For the time being, Kreger remembers her little boy who traveled to South America on mission trips, brought candy to school to share with friends, and would rearrange his furniture almost weekly.

She also remembers him in the most creative way, by listening to the music he would listen too. Kreger still keeps her son’s iPod.

“I’ll listen to a song, just for him. that’s how I remember him.”

If you have any information, contact Southwest Florida Crime Stoppers at 800-780- TIPS (8477).